GRAND RAPIDS -- Activists have ratcheted up the fight between the Grand Rapids Public Schools and its teachers union, recruiting national political operative Dick Morris to narrate a video denouncing the labor leaders.

But the Board of Education president says she wants nothing to do with the Education Action Group and its high-profile friends.

"They need to mind their own business," President Catherine Mueller said Tuesday. "We don't need their help."

Union leaders are critical of both, saying the district is relying on the Muskegon-based group for its public relations efforts.

City teachers worked last school year without a contract, and the dispute grew increasingly acrimonious through the spring, with the EAG throwing unsolicited barbs at the union.

EAG leader Kyle Olson said he produced the eight-minute video, "Profiles in Courage: The Grand Rapids School Board" to call attention to the lingering contract dispute. The video is posted on the group's Web site.

The group in May erected a billboard along U.S. 131 reading "Taxpayers or union bosses: Find out who wants control of GR schools," and has produced mailings critical of the union.

"This school board has only so much to work with, and it is coming under intense pressure," Olson said.

Morris is a former political consultant to former President Bill Clinton, who now is an author and analyst highly critical of the Clintons.

Olson said he met Morris through his brother, Ryan, who worked for the Mackinac Center, a conservative think-tank.

Olson saw Morris last fall and discussed the Grand Rapids' situation and asked the pundit to lend his services to the EAG. Olson wrote the script for the video, which was filmed last month in New York. He said Morris did not charge for his appearance.

"He and I have been talking about what is happening in Grand Rapids, and Morris volunteered his time and talent to lend a hand," Olson said.

In the video, Morris says, "The poor Grand Rapids school district is trying to educate kids" and it consists of "brave citizens who are finally standing up to the teachers unions. In Grand Rapids, the good guys are standing up for the kids."

Morris also says the union is "threatening to strike to rake in taxpayer dollars for bloated insurance premiums."

Teachers union President Paul Helder blasted both the EAG and the school board for the video.

"EAG's style is to pass off inaccuracies and supposition as fact," he said. "This latest piece by Kyle Olson is no exception. He has never contacted us for any information about what has really been going on in Grand Rapids.

"Our board's idea of education is creating a policy that allows children to graduate without attending classes. If Mr. Olson and Mr. Morris are going to continue to attack GR residents, maybe they should be present in GR more than they are absent -- it might help them get their facts straight."

Superintendent Bernard Taylor said he had "no idea why Dick Morris would be interested in Grand Rapids," and said he had no opinion on the video.

But Mueller said she watched the video, and doesn't think the board needs assistance from outsiders. She said the board is continuing to work with its employee groups and hopes to come to an agreement.

"We don't need the EAG's help, nor do we want it," she said. "I don't even have them on my radar."